IDW - Lost Light #14

Title: The Scavengers in: The Ties That Bind

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Sara Pitre-Durocher and Brendan Cahill

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Several years ago, Shockwave flies away from Garrus-9 during it's occupation by Overlord, he has several other prisoners with him for plans that he is keeping quiet for now. Shockwave received a call from Tarn of the DJD during his escape, and the two exchange pleasantries, Shockwave knows that he is at the top of the DJD's hit-list and offers the rest of his crew, other people on the list, in place of him going free. Tarn rejects the offer, since he plans to complete the list in exact order. This causes Shockwave to have a small meltdown since it makes no sense to do things in that way, leading Tarn to use his manipulative voice ability to try and cause Shockwave's spark to explode.

Flywheels and Flame have been listening to this call in secret and rush to Scorponok to escape before the DJD can actually kill Shockwave, and come after them afterwards. The three of them jump from the ship, just before Shockwave shoots his communicator, stopping Tarn's attack. Before the DJD can go after him again however, Bludgeon and his team arrive on the scene to rendezvous with Shockwave, forcing the DJD to abandon this target for now...

Today, Nickel tries calling Deathsaurus on his own communicator from Troja Major, which is where she and the Scavengers were spirited to before by Agonizer. Nickel is unimpressed by the Scavengers, especially Grimlock however since he was a major target on the DJD's list.

Nickel soon joins the Scavengers inside Agonizer's store where they are informed that Flame stole the Magnificence from a friend of Agonzier's, Mengel, and that after studying her files on it, believes that the Magnificence is one of the Knights of Cybertron's final forms. He asks the Scavengers to retrieve it in exchange for literally anything they want. They agree for an absurd amount of money and are warped to the planet, Confluence, where Flame's signal was last located.

The team arrive on the planet, in the middle of a forest, however Fulcrum realizes that something is wrong, as Confluence is supposed to be a desert planet. Suddenly the trees around them transform and surround the Scavengers, reminding them of the first time they found Grimlock and saw a dead one of these robots in a chair on the ship.

Grimlock goes to action and takes down the "Treecons" with ease. During the battle, Nickel reveals that she is a member of the DJD, but before the Scavengers can do anything, Grimlock tells them to leave her alone, as she is one of them now.

Soon, Scorponok explodes from the ground and attacks the Scavengers, Grimlock goes to attack him, but Scorponok just waves a claw, sending Grimlock unconscious.

Scorponok's crew put the Scavengers on their Worldsweeper ship and leave the planet. The Scavengers, bar Grimlock wake up in a cell, where the team explain how they found Grimlock on Clemency and have been trying to fix his mind ever since. They decide to look inside Grimlock's chest to see if Scorponok has a device in there that allowed him to knock him out before, but all they find inside is an empty cavity, with what looks like a brace for the Matrix to sit inside....

Scorponok arrives with Flame and some guards, who reveals that it's not for the Matrix, but the Magnificence. He and Flame reveal that they stole it from Grimlock after driving him mad and discarding his body on the ship he was found on.

Scorponok wakes Grimlock up using his claw trick again, having determined that the Scavengers are not part of the group he thought they were originally. Upon seeing Spinister next to him seemingly messing with his inner-chest parts, Grimlock reacts badly and tears off his arm. Scorponok and the others leave as Grimlock proceeds to seemingly attack his cellmates as they scream in pain...

Later, the guards notice one of the bars on the cell is shorting out, so they approach it, where they find Grimlock standing over his dismembered friends, demanding to speak to Scorponok...

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Decepticon

Misfire - Fighter Jet Torn Apart by Grimlock

Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb Torn Apart by Grimlock

Spinister - Helicopter Torn Apart by Grimlock

Crankcase - Van Torn Apart by Grimlock

Krok Torn Apart by Grimlock

Nickel - Rocket Car Torn Apart by Grimlock

Damus/Tarn - Tank (Flashback Only)

Amp/Kaon - Variable Voltage Harness (Flashback Only)

Scissorsaw/Tesarus - Metal Grinder (Flashback Only)

Crucible/Helex - Smelting Chamber (Flashback Only)

Dominus Ambus/Vos/The Pet - Turbofox (Flashback Only)

Forestock/Vos - Rifle (Flashback Only)

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Flashback Only)

Flywheels - Tank/Jet (Flashback Only)

Bludgeon - Tank (Flashback Only)

Skip - Space Shuttle (Flashback Only)

Bomb-Burst - VTOL Jet (Flashback Only)

Finback - Hovercraft (Flashback Only)

Skullgrin - Tank (Flashback Only)

Kakuryu - Monster (Flashback Only)

Rairyu - Monster (Flashback Only)

Doryu - Monster (Flashback Only)

Goryu - Monster (Flashback Only)

Birdbrain - Monster (Flashback Only)

Bristleback - Monster (Flashback Only)

Scowl - Monster (Flashback Only)

Icepick - Monster (Flashback Only)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Deathsaurus - Dragon (Mentioned)

Overlord - Tank and Jet (Mentioned)

Howlback - Cassette (Mentioned)

Mystery Gear Faction

Scorponok - Scorpion

Flame

Prison Guards

"Treecons" - Trees Many Killed by Grimlock

Other Cybertronian

Agonizer/The Curator

The Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Other

Mengel (Mentioned) Killed by Black Block Consortia 

The Black Block Consortia (Mentioned)

The Omega Guardians (Mentioned) Ascended to a Higher Realm

Notes

• So we finally see who was in Shockwave's specially selected team! It was a bunch of Decepticons who were also on the DJD's list, so he could use them as bargaining chips for his own freedom. Good guy! Judging from the Dinoforce and Skip being amongst the guys there however, it seems likely that they ended up joining with Deathsaurus after Shockwave abandoned them some time after this flashback scene.
• This also shows how Scorponok and Flame escaped from Garrus-9, which was where we last saw them in continuity.
• Bomb-Burst, Skullgin and Finback were last seen during the Stormbringer era where they appeared to be killed during the story. I guess it's possible they survived their "deaths" and were captured afterwards though.
• Also the planet Garrus-9 is officially named as Elba in IDW now, after being named that in the Animated continuity
• The Vos seen in the opening flashback is clearly supposed to be Dominus Ambus in disguise, with the hooked hands, but he's otherwise drawn like the later Vos, which was not his character model.
• Flywheels isn't seen floating with Scorponok and Flame in space after escaping the ship, most likely he's flown away in jet mode to eventually join with the other Scavengers.
• Bludgeon's role in this story is a bit confusing. Scorponok's dialogue implies that Bludgeon and his crew were amongst the escapees with Shockwave. However Shockwave was freed after the bulk of the opening attacks from the Purge, when we saw Bludgeon and his team going after Kup's team at the very start of the Purge...so...was he somehow freed early and kept in touch with Shockwave in some way?
• So, turns out I was wrong, and the guy who rescued the Scavengers and Nickel last we saw them was Agonizer. He was previously mentioned as being familiar with Krok in the past, so I guess this makes sense!
• It's implied by Nickel that Grimlock was the one who caused Tarn's facial scars.
• It's theorized in this issue that the Magnificence was originally a member of the Knights of Cybertron who shed his body to focus solely on knowledge. This is somewhat similar to the story of Epistimus, one of the Guiding Hand who was reduced to a brain module in the final battle of the Hand...maybe this is the same brain?
• Nickel confirms this issue that Grimlock WAS at one point a Decepticon, and defected to the Autobots.
• Wow this issue resolves a lot of loose plot threads around the Scavenger's adventures! The Treecons, Worldsweeper, Grimlock locked in a Stasis Pod and even the strange experiments they encountered on Clemency were all caused by Scorponok's group
• The mystery around Grimlock's condition is also explained. When Garrus-9 was attacked, the Magnificence, which was previously stored under the Aequitas computer was moved into a special brace placed into Grimlock's chest, which could only be opened by Grimlock being broken mentally. Scorponok used the Warren (currently being used by Getaway to reach Cyberutopia) to steal Grimlock from G-9 and drove him mad to release the orb.....wait...then why did it end up in Mengel's hands if they got it out of Grimlock's chest?
• Hmmm...looking at the bodies of the Scavengers, none of them look any worse than just piecing themselves back together, especially since both Spinister and Nickel are medics.I doubt they're dead (plus the solicit for next issue seems to imply they survive too)
• I don't know why, but the weird storm on Troja Major makes me think that it's going to be under attack from Unicron soon...maybe the radiation is an early attack of his in this universe?